YEREVAN—The Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) at their meeting in Yerevan on October 14 signed a collective statement regarding the direction of the military bloc until the year 2025. The statement focuses on the framework of the agenda including “further enforcement of the military component of the Organization, training of the military personnel, and development of the CSTO member states’ crisis response system,” according to the Armenian Presidential press service.
“The member states have reiterated their readiness to build the relations with the international community based on equality and inalienability of security, refrain from the use of force or threat to use force in international relations and at the same time in the resolution of the emerging problems to giving the priority to the political and diplomatic means,” President Serzh Sarkisian told reporters.
The President of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, has been named chairperson of the body for the 2016-2017 year. However, the meeting did not vote on the Secretary General position, as the bloc decided to revisit the issue at the end of year.
The session’s agenda included discussion of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. “The partners expressed support to the agreements on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict reached this year in Vienna and Saint Petersburg, aimed at thwarting the rise of tension in the conflict zone, stabilization of the situation and creation of the conditions for moving the peace process forward,” Sarkisian said.
“At the session, the parties reiterated the necessity of solving the issue through exclusively peaceful means, and expressed support to the efforts of the Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group aimed at the resolution of the conflict, which are based on the norms and principles of international law, UN Charter, Helsinki Final Act, and the principles of non-use of force or threat to use force, territorial integrity of the states, legal equality and the right of people for self-determination,” Sarkisian continued.
You need two to Tango.